K-1 legend Francisco Filho gave an exclusive interview with Tatame recently and was asked about what he feels about the current state of K-1.

“The last thing I’ve heard was that there won’t be a heavyweight GP anymore, but it seems that there will be bouts on the lightweight division. I really believe the event is extinct. Many athletes won’t have any scholarship, even Dream, that was organized by the guys of K-1, also have missed some payments. So, it seems that there’s no big martial arts events in Japan anymore, only small ones.”

Granted, this is what he has heard, but there are strong rumors now that there will indeed be a K-1 Heavyweight Grand Prix as long as everything goes according to plan. Filho does not fault the fighters, believing the level of competition to still be elite, but the politics and poor management involved.

“I believe the level of the athletes is not the problem. The promoters should be blamed, the politics, the misunderstandings, which brought this unfortunate to the athletes. Everybody thinks the same as me, that there’s a good technical level in K-1, which was a great event. The organizers made some mistakes, they had some taxes issues in the past, what made the event lose credibility. From some time things started to call up some Pro Wrestling guys and people lost interest, stopped going. There’s the bad organization of the promoters and there so not well matched up bouts and that’s it”, said Francisco, who can’t see it going any other direction. [source]